PCS Families,
Mr. Pender issued an important statement about tardiness on Monday. If you didn’t get a chance to read it in the highlights, here it is! Thank you for your attention to this issue!
CHRONIC TARDINESS – I have researched this problem and found that in many schools 95% of the student body arrive on time almost without fail. These are the students/families that rise early, plan in advance and leave with plenty of time so that they are not rushing out the door frantically, yelling about the one making them late, breaking the speed limit and raising the stress to dangerous levels. It is the 5% that make the start of the school day difficult for teachers, office employees and themselves. I haven’t found a magic pill that fixes the problem but parents and students should understand the difficulties they create.
First, in the life of the student it establishes a bad habit and character issue.
Second, it imposes on others and is disrespectful; the daily devotions and prayer, pledges and announcements are missed or disrupted so the day does not start right for the student and possibly others interrupted by the student. The first thing that usually happens in a class is instructions for the day or at the very least the first lesson. When a student arrives late the teacher is inconvenienced by having to repeat what he/she told everyone else and the class sometimes has to wait for the late comer to catch up. Thirdly, chronic tardiness reveals priorities. Things that are a priority to us take a front row seat in our planning and practice.
To demonstrate the importance you place on education in the life of your student rise early, pray with him or her about school that day, make sure they have all of their work, drop them off a little early with a blessing and lay the ground work for success in their life. A smooth start to the day is likely to have a positive effect for the rest of the day.